Gorbachev Is Promoting Hard-Line Police Chief

By FRANCIS X. CLINES, Special to The New York Times

Published: February 5, 1991

MOSCOW, Feb. 4—
President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, maintaining his emphasis on tightening the Kremlin's control over the nation, rewarded the new hard-line Soviet police chief today with a promotion and authorized further investigative powers in the name of fighting corruption and crime.

At the same time, the decision by the democratically elected Moscow City Council to appoint a new city police chief was overrruled by the central Kremlin authorities in a clear blow to local self-rule.

The police chief, Boris K. Pugo, the K.G.B. and Communist Party official who has moved quickly to reassert central police power as the new Minister of the Interior, was promoted to the rank of colonel general by Mr. Gorbachev.

The upgrading of Mr. Pugo from his previous rank, major general, was made without comment by the Soviet leader but was clearly a sign that the Kremlin was well pleased with the new crackdown measures sweeping the nation, from the use of army troops in policing civilians to the strengthening of censorship in broadcasting. Fear of 'Social Upheavals'

With the Communist Party hierarchy having just warned that the nation's crisis was dangerously close to "destructive social upheavals," the Kremlin made separate announcements about the promotion and about the creation of a new Interior Ministry unit to look into suspicions of criminal activities.

A new administration in the ministry is to work with the K.G.B. state police in "the struggle against organized crime, drugs and corruption," according to the presidential order signed by Mr. Gorbachev.

The Interior Ministry branches in the 15 republics are to have similar new anti-crime agencies, with the Kremlin ordered to begin special monitoring of the new operation in the next six months, according to the order as reported by Tass, the official press agency.

While the Kremlin has been stressing the public's concerns about corruption and street crime in the current economic crisis, the insurgent opposition has been warning that the new police measures will be used as well to solidify Kremlin power and undercut political dissent, particularly in the separatist-minded republics. Old Police Chief Reinstated

Here in the capital, voters last year deprived the Communists of control of the City Council by electing a democratic coalition that promised wide reforms, including in the police. The insurgent city government replaced the Kremlin's choice for local police chief last month by a council vote of 281 to 5.

But today the Interior Ministry, led by Mr. Pugo, ordered that the directives of the new Moscow police chief, Vyacheslav S. Komissarov, not be obeyed by the rank-and-file Interior Ministry officers who police the city. Instead, the Kremlin ordered the reinstatement of Pyotr S. Bogdanov, the previous police chief, who had resigned.

No further explanation was offered by the Kremlin. Democratic critics warn that the Communist authorities are trying to use Kremlin diktat to recoup power lost in electoral defeats.

Mr. Pugo, who took over the Interior Ministry two months ago, said today that the new anti-crime coordinating measures by the Kremlin were not directly linked with the splits that have been developing in local and provincial police commands in such sovereignty-minded regions as the Baltic republics. Dual Police 'Inadmissible'

The operation of dual police forces, central and republic, as in breakaway Lithuania, is "inadmissible," Mr. Pugo said, and "even dangerous, since this could lead to an armed clash."

Pro-Moscow troops and Interior ministry officers have been seizing Lithuanian republic buildings, including the television center in Vilnius, where 15 civilians were killed last month in a Soviet paratrooper attack.